Fruits of spiny and spineless Opuntia ficus indica are about 110-180 grams, range from 12 to 15% total soluble solids (Brix), have a variety of fruit colors, i.e. green, orange, red and purple, and have been grown in many arid regions of the world such as Mexico, Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Spain, Italy, Israel, South Africa for commercial fruit production (Parish and Felker, 1997). Mexico is the world center of production with great variation in spines, fruit colors, dates of maturity and Brix (Mondragon and Gonzalez, 1996). While the lime green variety Reyna is the leading cactus pear variety in Mexico (Mondragon and Gonzalez, 1994), this variety has long spines that prevent its cultivation in the USA due to objections from harvesting crews. Mondragon and Gonzalez, (1996) have reported fruits of many colors, but they have not provided experimental details on field design, laboratory methods or coefficients of variation for these properties and they do not provide data on firmness of the edible inner portion which Felker et al., (2005) have suggested needs to be greater than 2.2 lb for a good quality fruit. Moreover data on fruit Brix, firmness, weight, peel thickness, percentage of edible portion on more than 30,000 fruit of existing varieties and progeny of new crosses is not in agreement with Brix values of 15-16 for red or purple colored fruits reported by Mondragon and Gonzalez, (1996). Opuntia fruit data from refereed journal articles in which field and laboratory experimental details with estimates of the variation, have been provided by Barbera et al., (1992), Nerd et al., (1991) and Felker et al., (2005).
In 1998, obtained copies of the more than 100 Opuntia clones from Kingsville Tex. (that were later deposited in the USDA Opuntia germplasm collection in Parlier, Calif.) that represented all of the major types present in Mexico, South Africa, Argentina and Chile. As described below, as none of the existing cultivars met objectives of high pulp firmness (>2.8 lb), high Brix (>14), thornlessness, lime green color and low damage from rapid temperature changes known as clearing, hybridizations were conducted to obtain the desired variety.
There are extensive plantations of cactus pear for fruit in the Mediterranean, principally Sicily but also Spain and Israel. Opuntia ficus indica was brought to Spain on one of the first voyages of Christopher Columbus from where it spread to the rest of the Mediterranean region. In the largest commercial production area of the Mediterranean in Sicily, there are 3 varieties, ‘Rossa’ (with red fruit), ‘Gialla’ (with yellow fruit) and ‘Bianca’ (with almost colorless fruit) (Barbera et al., 1992). These three varieties were essentially the same with regard to fruit quality with a maximum Brix of about 13% (Barbera et al., 1992). Nerd et al., (1991) in Israel, found the Brix of the summer ‘Ofer’ variety (which is yellow and similar to the ‘Gialla’ from Sicily) to be 11.8% in the winter and 12.8% in the summer. In Argentinean field trials, the Kingsville, Tex. (TAMUK) accession 1281 (which is very similar to the Italian ‘Rossa’), and TAMUK 1277 and 1320 (which are similar to Italian ‘Gialla’) had Brix values of about 12.6, 12.7 and 13.0 respectively (Felker et al., 2005).
In spite of acceptable fruit sugar concentrations of about 13% in high yielding varieties, such as Italian ‘Rossa’ and ‘Gialla’ types (including 1281, 1277, 1320), these varieties have very low pulp firmness of about 2 lb (versus 4 lb for spiny orange 1287 and green fruited Argentine and Chilean varieties) which lead to poor consumer acceptance in Argentina (Felker et al., 2005). While firmness is the parameter measured, the objectionable quality is that pulps with low firmness value lack structural integrity and may break apart when the peel is separated from the pulp. A pulp firmness of about 2.2 lb has been suggested as the minimum acceptable for cactus fruit (Felker et al., 2005).
In the USA, the only commercial variety, the ‘Andyboy Red’, is similar to the Italian ‘Rossa’. The ‘Andyboy Red’ has a Brix of about 13.5 in the summer crop but maybe as low as 10.5 in the mid winter crop. Perhaps due to the cooler weather of the growing region in the USA, the red fruits do not break apart when peeled, but they are not as firm and juicy as other types. The ‘Andyboy Red’ is also in the low range of pulp firmness of about 2 lb. In the USA, the major demand from consumers is for the red colored fruit.
In spite of the lack of red color, the nearly 2% increase in Brix (from about 12.7 to 14.6) and the greater firmness and juiciness of cactus fruits with a lime green interior are much appreciated by many consumers. The lime green fruits have two shortcomings when grown along the California Pacific coast. First short periods of higher than normal daily maximum temperature causes the edible portion of the fruit to have a water soaked, translucent appearance and an off flavor (called clearing). Secondly the edible fruit portion of green fruit has a much lower percentage than that of the red fruited varieties.
Therefore using the basic crossing technique of Wang et al., (1996), hybrids were made between parents that were thorny, high firmness, high Brix fruits with low clearing and a high pulp/peel ratio and parents that were thornless, high firmness, low pulp %, high susceptibility to fruit clearing, to develop a high Brix, high firmness, and thornless green fruited variety with improved pulp %, reduced clearing and good commercial yield. Progeny of the crosses were planted near Chualar, Calif. and evaluated for Brix and firmness using previously described techniques (Felker et al., 2005). After evaluating fruit data from hundreds of fruits from un replicated progeny in the field, about a dozen clones of green parents and the best of their progeny, were selected and planted in a randomized complete block trial with four replicates (with one plant per replicate) to directly compare fruit characters for these advanced selections. For two years, several fruits were taken from each of the four replicates, once a month from about September till May. The best green fruited variety of this randomized complete block trial, originally from Block 1, row 29 plant 21 of this trial was found to have the best overall combination of characters and is the subject of this patent. The parents of this plant were a spineless green variety with high clearing R7-54:1-08-43 and a spiny green variety with no clearing R7-53YT:1-01-12. None of the parents have been patented or have patent pending.
Asexual propagation
All cactus pear varieties are asexually propagated by cutting an approximate one year old cladode from the mother plant, allowing the cut scar to heal over for approximately 2 weeks and then planting this unrooted cladode (botanically a portion of a dicot stem) about ⅓ of its height into dry soil. If the cladode does not rot, 100% of them will root in less than a month without any hormone treatments
Apomixis, that is the asexual reproductive process that occurs in the ovule of flowering plants, frequently occurs in Opuntia ficus indica (Mondragon-Jacobo, 2001). While the ratio of apomictic seedlings to seedlings resulting from fertilization varies greatly among female parents, we have found that apomixis occurs in this new variety. Thus this variety could be propagated asexually from apomictic seedlings. It is envisioned that this variety could be genetically engineered to include other traits.
This variety is propagated asexually by planting unrooted cladodes. The claimed plant retains its distinctive characteristics and reproduces true to type in successive generations.